Essential and interesting year-end book lists.
![The Burden Of Joy by Lexi Kent-Monning](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-Burden-Of-Joy-by-Lexi-Kent-Monning.webp?fit=277%2C436&ssl=1)
“Mostly I listen to music because of the mood a specific song can evoke, and that’s my goal when I write, too: I want a sentence or paragraph to conjure an emotion for the reader.”
![American Confidential by Deanne Stillman](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/American-Confidential-by-Deanne-Stillman.webp?fit=291%2C436&ssl=1)
“I could not survive without music – of all kinds – and when it comes to writing, the same is true, which is to say that just as I am compelled to listen, I am compelled to write.”
![Maximum Speed by Kevin Clouther](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Maximum-Speed-by-Kevin-Clouther.webp?fit=282%2C436&ssl=1)
“One of the stories opens: ‘There’s a short window—a fraction of a life—when everything is exactly right, and if you’re lucky, you never forget that time.’ I’m always heartened when people explore gratitude, which is as worthy as any emotion for attention.”
![Happy by Celina Baljeet Basra](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Happy-by-Celina-Baljeet-Basra.webp?fit=291%2C436&ssl=1)
“HAPPY is a workplace novel, a coming-of-age story, and, like a bag of flour, a multitude container. Following the journey of young cinephile Happy Singh Soni from Punjab to Europe, it’s a story on survival, and the inalienable right to a vivid inner life.”
![Master Lovers by David Winner](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Master-Lovers-by-David-Winner.webp?fit=273%2C436&ssl=1)
“After discovering five sets of love letters to my great aunt, Dorle Jarmel Soria, from the 1930s hidden in her apartment after her death, I wrote Master Lovers, a fiction/non-fiction mash-up that imagines these affairs and relays some of the darker stranger associations in Dorle’s life.”
![Oh, Didn't They Ramble by David Menconi](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Oh-Didnt-They-Ramble-by-David-Menconi.webp?fit=289%2C436&ssl=1)
“Americana music has always been a big tent, a loose stylistic category ranging from bluegrass to blues and beyond – jazz, gospel, soul, rock and even world music.”
![The River, The Town by Farah Ali](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-River-The-Town-by-Farah-Ali.webp?fit=286%2C436&ssl=1)
“As I wrote The River, The Town, a list of songs grew that I listened to sometimes whenever I sat down to finishing the novel.”
![Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts by Claire Donato](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Kind-Mirrors-Ugly-Ghosts-by-Claire-Donato.webp?fit=304%2C436&ssl=1)
“Here is a list of eight songs that appear in Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts, my first fiction book in ten years.”
![The Quail Who Wears The Shirt by Jeremy T. Wilson](http://web.archive.org./web/20231121212755im_/https://i0.wp.com/largeheartedboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-Quail-Who-Wears-The-Shirt-by-Jeremy-T.-Wilson.webp?fit=283%2C436&ssl=1)
“I don’t listen to music while I write, but music often finds its way into my writing.”